Against a Dark Background
- 512
- Pages
- about 9 h
- Reading time
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Our view
Banks left the Culture behind for the first time in “Against a Dark Background”, a grim, absorbing science fiction heist story. The first half can seem stiff in its writing and dialogue to some readers, who say the story comes alive later and ends strongly. It moves quickly and is, for some, overfull: more ideas than one book can comfortably hold.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Against a Dark Background is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1993. It was his first science fiction novel not to feature, or be set in, the Culture.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.8 across 114 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 44% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.5 | 15 | 13% |
| Hardcover | 7.9 | 99 | 87% |
Frequently asked
How long is Against a Dark Background?
It has 512 pages — longer than 65% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.8, the closest to this book.
